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Heh, I'm always the DM, but I can tell you that all the players in my group would be hard pressed to vote in this poll. Universally, they like to play all kinds of characters, don't like a lot imbalance, but don't worry about it. Instead, they expect me to worry about it so that they don't...

I realize this is a definitional dispute, but I disagree with the idea that "modular" equals "house rule." I will agree that it is often more a matter of degree than of kind, and there will be a lot of fuzzy areas. There will even be some where to get it to work the way you want, you activate a...

Well, I got into both games late, WoW on two different expansions. And I've never been much of a raider; so can't speak to that. For all I know, the variety there across the games is different. I did play Turbine's Asheron's Call shortly after launch, and have played other Blizzard games. So...

The true design trade-off is not between balance and variety, but between getting the mix of those right versus the time to do it and test it. Making everything truly the same throughout is one way to get balance. Ignoring balance entirely is one way to get variety. The more difficult but...

You know, I don't even think people here agree about what "playstyle" means. It appears to me that some people apparently mean by "different playstyle" that you can "play a different genre with different coloring" than the standard. It's as if Spelljammer and Ravenloft were playstyles--instead...

Mainly, what Tony said. I've never had particular good will towards a gaming company merely because they've produced something that sort of works. So I can't particularly lose that good will that isn't there to begin with. However, I don't have any ill will towards them, either. A company has to...

In addition to what Balesir said, to really win me over the design has to display a few characteristics: I'm convinced that the designers have a clear vision. The mechanics and flavor are unified in pursuit of that vision. The development is tested and works. The advice is congruent with the...

I'm not a huge MMO player either, but I've played enough of them, and enough hours, and read enough of the theory and practices to know that it depends on how you look at it. WoW was never very varied in playstyle, abilities, or choices, and has gotten steadily less so with every version...

"Amazing" is one word for it. ;)

Something like DDI doesn't cost very much, relative to the income, once it goes into "mostly maintenance" mode. So I'd say there is at least a good chance that keeping DDI running, more or less as is, becomes a replacement for the reprint of the books. You only need a developer or two fixing...

There's also the question of complexity, and where it is needful. It will naturally vary by player and preference and playstyle. Or, you can look at it from the other end, where a game is too simple--this also varies by player and preference and playstyle. For example, I like a game that...

A lot of rather brain-dead comparisons, by people that apparently hadn't played either the table top or video games being compared, or least thought about the game much, tended to drown out the more reasoned, useful comparisons. It reminds me a lot of how high school "discussion" worked, come...

I like the way Dragon Quest handles this, though the exact mechanics wouldn't translate to D&D. In more generic terms, it boils down to this choice: Staying at home - slow XP gain, money being spent like water, learn whatever you can find a teacher for, with practically no risk. Adventuring -...

Part of it is because logically where this kind of thinking carries us, when we look at the mechanics and handling time, is a place a lot of people don't want to go. (Kind of like how making Armor as AC only makes sense if you work it through, only in reverse.) To wit, consider having two...

Or just put big warning keywords on them, as needed: "Exploration Solver," "Interaction Killer," "Scouting Nullifier". (I suggest some symbols to stand for these.) :p

Yep. You can solve a good chunk of 3E caster problems, or at least put them off into much higher levels, by requiring all "full caster" classes to multiclass into a non-caster every third level. Or rather, about every third level. You might want to put it off until around level five, and then...

I didn't see anything objectionable in that article. If any of the usual suspects want to continue making stupid "4E is a MMORPG" statements, they've demonstrated over the last several years that they don't need a statement from Mearls that they can twist out of context, if you don't look at it...

Let's look at it a moment from 20,000 feet, at the larger issue for which the 15 minute work day is merely one famous example. I'm going the long way around for things that I think most people already know to show the linkage: Namely, it is anywhere the game model breaks down, such that the...

Oh, you could play it that way. It's merely that it would be akin to playing Basic D&D this way: DM: There are six monsters in the room. PC1: How do they look? DM: They have claws and teeth and maybe some kind of weapon, and they are running at you. Roll initiative... PC2: I swing my...

About 1 time in 3, on average. I know this because I tend to roll a d6 to make such determinations, and assign 1 or 2 to the lesser choices. Smarter, calmer monsters only go suboptimal on a 1, while monsters that are enrage or have other influences can go up to 1-3 or even 1-4. That's of...